New Internationalist articles from October 2008

New Internationalist archives from October 2008

No-one enjoys paying taxes.
October 1, 2008... No-one enjoys paying taxes. So it's not entirely surprising that conventional wisdom has taken the easy option and declared that the only good tax is a cut one. Less familiar is the way this became a 'tax consensus' imposed worldwide, much like...

Greenwashed plastics.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2008... Thanks for the superb September issue (Drowning in plastic, NI 415). What a refreshing change it was to have a good mix of topics. Plastic recycling was referred to several times, as if such a thing really existed, which it does not. For...

Diarrhoea deaths.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2008... Your issue on toilets (We need to think about toilets, NI 414) presented data on the worldwide annual deaths of children due to diarrhoea and suggested that improving sanitation could prevent a large proportion of these deaths. This is a little...

Tipler tollets.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2008... I was sad to note that your piece on toilets ('For your convenience', NI 414), did not mention the extremely environmentally friendly 'Tipler' toilets which were still in use in Lancashire in the 1970s--and possibly still are in some areas....

Humanure.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2008... It is hard to believe that in your research for your issue on toilets (NI 414) you did not come across Joseph Jenkins' classic book Handbook of Humanure. In our community, in Ireland first and now in Colombia, we have been using the simple...

Saved by fair trade.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2008... Your country profile on Dominica (NI 414) does not mention the vital importance of fair trade in its economy. I heard the Prime Minister of Dominica speak in Lloyds of London at the launch of Fairtrade Fortnight 2007. Dominica had been ruined,...

Jail babies.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2008... I read with great interest your article on jail babies (Currents, NI 414). Having done some voluntary work a few years ago it brought back some happy yet sad memories. I volunteered in Ayacucho in Peru and each Friday we went to the local...

Anti-Arab poem.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2008... I am a little surprised at your decision to publish 'The Dance' (Special Feature, 'As if poetry mattered', NI 413). While the subject matter is worthy of commemoration, the manner in which it is done is racist to say the least. One example is...

Lives of others.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2008... The suggestion on how to ban nukes and save the planet (Dropping the bomb, NI 412) was in my opinion extremely weak. Most of the world's problems today follow directly from the military 'success' of Hiroshima. The US tightened up its...

Marianne, not Mandela.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2008... Your Speechmarks quote (Nl 414) is often erroneously attributed to Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural address. But the words were written by Marianne Williamson and received a wider audience because of their association with Mr Mandela. ...

Happy camper.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2008... I would like to commend an excellent event to my fellow Nl readers. Climate Camp 2008 was a fine example of the way we might wish to live in a sustainable community as climate catastrophe approaches. I learnt much from the excellent workshops...

Living theatre: tempers flare between the occupants of Maria Golia's building--but smoke doesn't necessarily mean fire.(Letter from Cairo)
October 1, 2008... My building is nearly empty after sunset, since most of the flats are occupied by the offices of a government insurance company whose employees have, by then, all gone home. They don't do much business anyway, since it's hard selling insurance...

Tax justice and the global fiddle: a 'consensus' on taxation has been imposed worldwide. David Ransom wonders how an agreement can ever have been reached between people who never even knew it existed.(Tax Justice)(Report)
October 1, 2008... Private equity tycoon Guy Hands, head of the troubled entertainment group EMII, must have reckoned he was finally on to a sure-fire winner. For every dollar he invested in a film called Crust--about a two-metre-long shrimp--he expected to...

Can pay ... won't pay! Much of the world's wealth now hangs out in tax havens, as John Christensen knows from first-hand experience. The consequences have been disastrous. But the winds of financial crisis might finally be about to blow the havens away.(Tax Justice)(Report)
October 1, 2008... It was a hot, windless afternoon in August 1995 and the atmosphere in my office in Saint Helier, Jersey, was stifling. I was economic adviser to this Channel Island tax haven, one of many offshore satellites of the City of London, and I was...

Tax injustice--the facts: the measure of just tax is the ability to pay. the world's tax system today is unjust, shifting the burden from rich to poor--and failing altogether to address the green agenda.(List)
October 1, 2008... Race to the bottom (1) Tax havens are now the first port of call for transnational corporations and rich individuals seeking tax-free wealth. The more havens there are, the more they compete to offer the least tax and attract the most...

Tax the richest: why are we waiting? In November the most important UN conference for six years on combating poverty is taking place. Paying for the Millennium Development Goals is at the top of the agenda. David Hillman explains why we don't need to look very far to find the funds.(Tax Justice)(Millennium Development Goals)(Conference news)
October 1, 2008... The flags of all the UN countries that flank the famous building in New York billowed in the gentle April breeze. I had stepped outside for a bit of fresh air and to call my office in London. I had just heard Douglas Alexander, the British...

A short history of taxation beards, boots, beehives ... candles, nuts, hats, horses, chimneys, water--Tsar Peter taxed them all. But he is still styled 'the great' in modern histories of Russia, perhaps because of the mighty works his taxes produced. This is the eternal fate of taxation: to be the abused or abusive means towards noble or ignoble ends, never quite able to escape its association with extortion and war.
October 1, 2008... In the beginning The word 'tax' first appeared in the English language only in the 14th century. It derives from the Latin taxare which means 'to assess'. Before that, English used the related word 'task', derived from Old French. For a...

Why ecotaxes may not be the answer: no serious assault on climate change can ignore the role of tax. But, as Nicola Liebert reports, the experience of Germany reveals some familiar political weaknesses.(Tax Justice)(Report)
October 1, 2008... Imagine a tax that fights environmental pollution and unemployment at the same time. A real win-win tax, in other words, that causes hardly any pain because the money is returned to the taxpayers. Too good to be true? Not so, thought Hans...

Rebels with a cause: popular rebellion has often accompanied oppressive taxation. Almost all the protests were against taxes that ignored the ability to pay. Here are just a few examples.(List)
October 1, 2008... Poll Tax Rebellion (Britain) The regime of Margaret Thatcher replaced local taxes on property with a single 'flat' tax per head of population. The tax proved cumbersome to collect and met with mounting resentment; one in five adults had to...

Queer India ... is coming out to play. Nick Harvey sets the scene--and then takes an in-depth look at the problems faced by Indian lesbians.(Report)
October 1, 2008... Wild orgies involving sages and courtesans, elephants mating with tigers, warriors comparing their genitals, half-naked women in passionate embrace... if you spend time taking in the artwork and sculptures in some of India's temples you could...

The fire inside: lesbianism in India has traditionally been the great unmentionable--and the treatment meted out to women who love women still leads many couples to opt for suicide pacts, often burning themselves to death. But in the wake of a ground breaking film, lesbians are asserting themselves more--and seeing some encouraging signs of change, as Nick Harvey reports.(the movie 'Girlfriend')(Report)
October 1, 2008... Queen Victoria refused to believe women were capable of such 'ghastly' behaviour. So when it was suggested back in 1885 that Indian law be adapted to criminalize lesbianism as well as male homosexuality it was rumoured she was horrified and...

Breathing again: Aboriginal sea rights a landmark victory.(INDIGENOUS PEOPLES)
October 1, 2008... In 1963 a sheet of bark was presented in the Australian Federal Parliament. On it, 12 signatories from Australia's Northern Territory objected to a number of pieces of paper that would have a great impact on indigenous lands--leases granting a...

Princess and president.(CORRUPTION)(Phillippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo)
October 1, 2008... Having arranged a 10-day trip to the US for herself and at least 59 of her loyal congress members, at a reported cost of 66 million pesos ($1.42 million), Filipino President Arroyo was not going to let anything stop her. So, despite the country...

In tents activity: campaigners take to the canvas to show solidarity.(DARFUR)(Tent of Hope)
October 1, 2008... The ongoing suffering of the people of Darfur, still displaced from their homes after several years, can too easily be forgotten. But a simple idea--pitching a tent in a community as a focal point for awareness and action--has caught people's...

Funding cuts threaten lives in Kenya.(HUMAN RIGHTS)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... Human skulls and decomposing bodies dug up in Kenya's Rift Valley Province show signs of torture. Suspected criminals and members of ethnic gangs are gunned down. Such acts are widely believed to be the work of the country's armed forces,...

Pull down St. Paul's!(CORPORATIONS)(St. Paul's Cathedral)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... British aid agency ActionAid recently put in an application to demolish London's famed St Paul's Cathedral. Their aim? To expose a British mining company's plans to open a huge strip mine in the Niyamgiri sacred mountain in Orissa, India....

Their guns will not conquer: the Karen fight ethnic cleansing in Burma with economic development.(MINORITIES)
October 1, 2008... 'These are the darkest days we have ever faced,' says Colonel Nerdah Mya of the Karen National Liberation Army-the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU)--as we sit at base camp. Here in the mountain jungles of Karen State in eastern...

Bang your head: true tales of a mixed-up world.(Seriously ... [TM])(Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... A US defence contractor, Sierra Nevada Corporation, is claiming to have developed a technology that allows sounds to be beamed directly into people's heads. According to the New Scientist, the kit, dubbed MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using...

Only planet.(Cartoon)
October 1, 2008... Inter-galactic HEALTH and SAFETY inspectors GORT and KLAATU are being rudely awoken from their CRYOGENIC SLUMBER.... EMERGENCY OVER-RIDE! INTERVENTION PLANET EARTH Repeat-URGENT INTERVENTION: PLANET EARTH. CRYOGENIC SUSPENSION CHAMBER...

Big bad world.
October 1, 2008... biG BaD WoRLd [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Gazprom: taking aim at the rich and powerful.(Worldbeaters)
October 1, 2008... Job: Russia's publicly controlled energy monopoly. Reputation: Jewel of the Russian economy; power-centre of the Government of Vladimir Putin; major player on world energy scene. Microsoft? General Motors? ExxonMobil? Which is the...

Linha de passe.(Mixed Media)(Movie review)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... This, thank God, is not another second rate City Of God. It is Brazilian, and about the struggle to survive in the city, but it isn't flashy, doesn't set out to excite or thrill, doesn't feature lives blasted away by gang violence. This is...

Alexandra.(Mixed Media)(Movie review)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... written and directed by Alexander Sokurov (92 minutes) Alexandra is an elderly Russian woman on a short visit to her grandson, a Russian army officer, stationed in Grozny, Chechnya. The camp is spartan, military life is oppressive and...

Big Blue Ball.(Mixed Media)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... For one week each in the summers of 1991, 1992 and 1995, Peter Gabriel threw open the doors of his Real World studios in rural/England and invited an enormous bunch of musicians--Sinead O'Connor, Marta Sebestyen, Papa Wemba, Guo Yue are just a...

The Rebels' Hour.(Mixed Media)(Brief article)(Book review)
October 1, 2008... Weaving together factual and fictional elements to form a coherent narrative is fiendishly difficult and often unsatisfying for both author and reader. Not so with Lieve Joris's spellbinding account of the recent ill-starred history of the...

From A to X: a story in letters.(Mixed Media)(Brief article)(Book review)
October 1, 2008... One of the books which shaped my political outlook as a teenager was John Berger's groundbreaking study, Ways of Seeing. Over the decades he has followed this seminal work with a steady stream of novels, poetry, polemic and works that transcend...

Hear, O Israel: a prayer ceremony in jazz.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... In 1965, nothing short of a miracle was performed in a synagogue in Worcester, MA, when a 17-year-old rabbi's son-and fledgling composer--named Joseph Klein lured one of the greatest names in jazz to join in performing a jazz prayer ceremony....

The Riddle of Qaf.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 1, 2008... Alberto Mussa is a Brazilian of Lebanese descent and in his fourth work of fiction, The Riddle of Qaf, he has drawn on his Middle Eastern heritage and seasoned the results with a good sprinkling of Latin American Magical Realism. Mixing...

Southern exposure: highlighting the work of artists and photographers from the majority world.(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... I was born in Ethiopia in 1974 and spent an itinerant childhood between Cyprus, Yemen and England. I started taking photographs in high school, inspired partly by distorted media images of the Ethiopian famine. After studying film at Howard...

Interview with Martha Lucia Micher Camarena.(Making Waves)(Interview)
October 1, 2008... Mexico is quite far from being a model of gender equality. It ranked a rather dismal 93rd out of 128 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report of 2007. Domestic violence is rife; in fact, over 70 per cent of all Mexican women say they have...

Timor, Cuba--and the making of a medical superpower: every year Cuba, a majority world country of only 10 million people, sends more than 30,000 volunteer medical workers to 93 countries around the world. Surgeon Katherine Edyvane recounts the little-told story from first-hand experience.(Essay)
October 1, 2008... Although I had met Cuban medical workers in other situations, it was during a recent one-year assignment as surgeon advisor to the Dili National Hospital in Timor-Leste that I learned more about the scope and intent of Cuba's huge international...

Tanzania.(Country overview)
October 1, 2008... Tanzanla is home to the highest point in Africa--snow--capped Mount Kilimanjaro, which can be climbed by walkers without mountaineering equipment--as well as to Olduvai Gorge, where some of the oldest human remains have been found. It also...

Save Yasuni! A decent proposal: what the Yasuni campaign is calling for.(CAMPAIGN UPDATE)(Yasuni National Park)
October 1, 2008... The proposal set out by President Rafael Correa of Ecuador in May last year to preserve the Yasuni was a bold one, with inspiring principles behind it. For the first time a national government had sought international financial support to keep...

What we're excited about this month.(CAMPAIGN NEWS)(Mayor Anita Rivas of Orellana, Ecuador)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... Anita Rivas (left), Mayor of Orellana in the Yasuni region, will be arriving in the UK on 3rd October for the launch event--and, we hope, some meetings with government bigwigs. She's then going to Barcelona, Madrid, Cadiz and Cordoba. She's...

What we're not excited about.(CAMPAIGN NEWS)(Canadian Minister Beverly Oda)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... We've had our first government fob-off! An email from the Honourable Beverly Oda, Canadian Minister responsible for overseas development, responded to our letter asking them politely but firmly to help save Yasuni. It informed us that they fund...